


The Morning Ripped You Away

by DocSawbones



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Dan Dies AU, F/M, Grieving, M/M, Meg Lives AU, Nightmares, This is all hurt I'm sorry, attempted revival, but at what cost, loss of a loved one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:37:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DocSawbones/pseuds/DocSawbones
Summary: It shouldn’t have turned out this way.Title from "Don't Wake Me Up" by The Hush Sound, which inspired me to write this fanfic!Basically, Dan dies in the Miskatonic Massacre, but Herbert and Meg live.





	The Morning Ripped You Away

**Author's Note:**

> this is super sad! i'll try to get the last chapter of reactionary out soon, but i had Ideas and Thoughts about this so i wrote it first

It shouldn’t have turned out this way. Both of them agreed, albeit without speaking to each other about it, that he wasn’t the one that was supposed to die. They both believed they were supposed to die. As if anyone is truly meant to die, they felt that something was wrong in the universe, now that he was gone. Of course, they blamed each other, in different ways. If only he didn’t care so much about her safety. If only he wasn’t so loyal and willing to carry on the other man’s work, stopping to grab the bag. Yes indeed, both Herbert West and Megan Halsey despised themselves and each other after Daniel Cain’s untimely demise.

 

Even though he didn’t really show it, Herbert was devastated. He often found himself wandering their formerly shared home, pacing silently, as if he was waiting for Dan to come home. Dan never came home. He cursed himself for pacing like this, he knows that his assistant was gone forever. He silently damned Meg for tearing him away from the lifeless corpse of the man, begging and crying that he needed to administer reagent before it was too late. Herbert never talked about how he felt after the massacre, but this was to be expected, as he didn’t talk about his feelings before the massacre either. No one, absolutely no one knew about his… deeper feelings for his roommate and assistant. Yes, he was valuable to Herbert’s research, but there was no denying that there were romantic feelings there as well. He never truly acted upon these things, just occasional glances, small touches, and the occasional use of “Danny.” That was the main reason why he felt so much after Dan’s death. Some part of him, a part he would’ve loved to ignore, wanted to talk to Meg about these feelings, as a feeble attempt to relate to her. Every other part of him knew that would have been a mistake.

 

Herbert’s feelings about Meg were more complex than before. He didn’t like her, even before Dan’s death, and certainly didn’t like her after. But there was a mutual understanding, a point of relation. They both lost Dan, someone who meant the world to them. Even though he hadn’t ever really liked her, sometimes he caught himself wondering how she was faring. After all, she and Dan were in love.

 

Meg hadn’t felt more empty than she had in her life. She’s dealt with the loss of loved ones before, her mother had died when she was just a little girl. Then, she had cried and cried, barely stopping. After the massacre, however, it seemed like she just couldn’t cry anymore. Her father, Alan Halsey, had died before the actual night of the massacre, and she cried then. But when Dan died, she just felt like she had a hole in her heart. Meg never liked to remember what she saw that night, how the love of her life, the man she was going to marry, died right before her eyes. A reanimated corpse, the burn victim, had come out of nowhere, shoving itself into the elevator door, grabbing at his throat. Of course she tried to fight it off, she couldn’t have let her boyfriend die. The fire axe she had grabbed to chop off the corpse’s arm delayed her, leaving him without a pulse by the time the elevator had reached their destination. She dragged his body, unable to carry him due to the size difference between them, to wherever the doctors led her. After chest compressions, after trying to jumpstart his heart, they confirmed his death. Meg didn’t even cry then. All she did was remember the bag that she, for some reason she couldn’t think of, brought with them into the room. When the doctors and nurses had left her with her dear Daniel, she had made a decision that would haunt her forever.

 

Immediately, she went to the bag, fishing out an extra syringe and the vial of reagent. She filled it, and made her way over to Dan’s lifeless body. Meg had thought that it looked like he was sleeping, if she ignored the bruises forming around his neck. She had paused, telling Dan “I love you” one last time, kissing him one last time, then making a very accurate guess as to where the needle would go. The reagent had left the syringe, and entered Dan’s body. At first, he had laid still, then his eyes fluttered open. Naturally, Meg rushed over to him, and planned on helping him sit up, but something horrible happened. He made a terrible noise, filled with more pain and suffering than what Meg had thought was humanly possible. Then he had grabbed onto her, empty eyes staring up, not at her, but past her. He had begged, pleaded to not go back. Dan didn’t want to go back into the darkness. 

 

Soon after Dan had stopped begging, he fell dead again. He was gone. Herbert entered the room though, somehow getting himself unwound from the intestines that tried to suffocate him. Seeing Dan’s body, he lunged towards the bag, filling another syringe with the little reagent left. Meg tried to stop him, tried to tell him that he shouldn’t. Her words couldn’t convince him, and so when Herbert had made his way over to the corpse of the man they both loved, she took to getting physical. Meg grabbed at him, pulled him back as hard as she could. Of course, Herbert was angry about this, but in a sad way. He begged for Meg to let him go, to give Dan reagent, to let him save Dan. She didn’t want to tell him that she had already tried. She didn’t want to tell him that this time, his life’s work failed.

 

Following the events of the massacre, both Meg and Herbert had nightmares and dreams of all sorts. Meg’s nightmares followed what had happened, watching Dan choke to death indefinitely, hearing him beg “Please, please don’t let me go back. I don’t want to be in the dark.” like a scared child. Almost always, she woke up crying. Herbert’s nightmares were simple, seeing Dan’s lifeless body, but being immobile. In his nightmares, he couldn’t ever move, he couldn’t save the man he loved. He felt helpless and weak, and he similarly woke up crying.

 

The most painful thing for the two of them, however, were the sweet dreams. Meg would dream about Dan and herself, married, living together with a child, happy. She dreamt that they were safe, content, free from harm. Herbert dreamt that he and Dan were similarly happy and safe, but also successful. Recognized for their hard work, lab partners and lovers. But as it’s known, sleep is only temporary, and dreams are too. Always, they’d wake up, alone. The light would slip through the window, the morning ripping away any dreams of Daniel Cain.


End file.
